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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (April 11, 2014)
street roots April 11, 2014 J A For the 1 A compilation of facts, large and STAFF W R ITER . • Humber of flight operations PDX H l saw in February: 14,877 ' • Percent of Oregon population that is ;;< < . • Percent of cyclists wearing their H * Portland bicycle count: 80- H H H R • Percent of female cyclists during the 2012 City of Portland bicycle count: 31 jWMedbYHoftie Forward, the region's housing authority, as of B February:48 H I 1 1 • Number of family households residing in Home Forward public housing: 1,955 say w as marked by a • Percentage of households wtM <^8dren Hng in Home Forward • Humber y y HfiBHR H I registefed votersin Multnomah County as of January 2014:442,132 • Humber of registered voters in Portland as of January 2014:363,302 • Pounds oftrash removed .by SOLVE’s cieanup work in 2013 from across Oregon: 43,584 g S X v ?' • Humber of native plants SOLVE pM e d in 2013 b Oregon: 427 • Humber of SUH schools in | J ||f • Humber of schooldistricts SUH 11 • Percentage of SUH schooled children and families who receive free or reduced loooh: 74 J / I n th e desk in Juliet Follansbee's downtown Portland office is a thick book of Oregon laws. It contains only a few sentences that grant the state agency she Operates tremendous power over the lives of hundreds of Oregonians. In May Follansbee was made interim executive director of the Psychiatric / Security Review Board, a position she was permanently appointed to in November. Created by Oregon lawmakers in 1977, the 10-rtiémber interdisciplinary board has -authority over individuals who have successfully asserted the “guilty except for insanity” defense, meaning they’ve committed a crime, but because of a mental illness or developmental disability did not fully understand what they were doing at the time. Follansbee takes the reins of the PSRB at a Trie Mental Health time when the state Association of has aspired to shift its mental health system Portland will be holding a talk with to more community- Juliet Follansbee, based rather than institutional settings. 6-8:30 p.m. Follansbee says that Tuesday, April 29 the PSRB has more at Oregon Health .resources to place & Science people in community University. settings than ever Admission is free before. Mental health but seating is advocates are also limited. hoping that Follansbee will set a new tone for I the PSRB. which some 0 received from flights in February: , | | ( j 1¿ 3 2 5 > 5 7 U ~ | | § I I H 5 BY JAKE THOMAS IH • Percent of runaway youth served by Multnomah County Runaway Youth H Services that are reunited with their families: 85 • Homeownership rate in 2 0 M 1 2 :^ S ■ V -L Director of Oregon5» psychiatric review board Says she welcomes change ¡iD w nii small, about our community - ' I [ 1 j j l Multnomah Comity, Oregon: Port of Portland: U.S. Census Bureau: The City of Portland, Oregon; Home Forward: SOLVE Oregon I 1 I ||| Have a favorite vendor? Let us know. We like to hear about the team's work, and we'll pass along the good word! - climate of fear and intimidation fostered by her predecessor. Follansbee says she’s open to changing thePSRB’s processes and operations. She also wants to help standardize training and foster a collaborative approach with community health care providers. She says she wants the PSRB to accommodate change, the biggest of which is the increase in resources to treat clients in community settings. “We (serve) just a small portion of the people who receive community mental health services,” says Follansbee. Being placed under the PSRB, says Follansbee, who previously ran a program that restored the gun rights of Oregonians whose mental health had prevented them from owning firearms, is different from a civil commitment, where someone is involuntarily placed in a mental health setting. “This is something that our clients have chosen to do because they thought that they woiild do better in a mental health setting,” She says, i However,, those who successfully assert the insanity defense grant the PSRB sweeping control over their lives. Depending on the severity of the crime committed, the PSRB (in consultation with community-based mental health providers) determines the settings clients are released into along with what sort of treatment and supervision they receive. Some clients living in more independent settings may have to check in twice a day with mental health workers. If someone is placed under the purview, of the PSRB, odds are it will have authority over them longer than if they.had gone to prison. Sometimes they will remain under the board’s authority for life. For. most PSRB clients, the first stop after successfully 1 pleading insanity is the Oregon State Hospital. “We have the/least amount of people in the hospital than we ever have, and the most amount of people in the community than we ever have,” says Follansbee. “And The Psychiatric Security Review Board was established by the Legislature in 1977 to assume jurisdiction over adults who successfully assert the insanity defense to a crime and are a substantial danger to others. Its duties were expanded in 2007 to include jurisdiction of young persons found responsible except for insanity. In 2009, the Legislature added the responsibility of conducting gun relief hearings to determine whether persons with mental health determinations who are barred from possessing a firearm should have their firearm privileges restored. The 2013 Legislative session expanded the Board's role in granting relief by designating it as the authority to hold hearings for those persons who have successfully asserted the “guilty except for insanity” defense and wish relief from reporting as a sex offender or reclassification of their risk designation. leveled against her predecessor, but she the reality is that whenever the hospital says someone is ready to be placed on did say that she wants clients, victims and conditional release, the board almost mental health advocacy organizations, always approves it.” .■ ■ which, she refers to as “partners,” to be Of the 559 people under the PSRB’s heard throughout the process. jurisdiction, 385 are on conditional “They often have competing interests release. and views,” she says, noting that In 2011, lawmakers passed legislation stakeholders’ interests won’t always align. that reformed the PSRB, system and “That’s challenging, and one of the ways created a separate board run by the we want to work collaboratively is to build Oregon State Hospital to determine when relationships where all of our stakeholders patients, who haven’t committed violent crimes, can he released. Follansbee, who feel like they’re getting a fair shake.” says there are about 90 people under the Although Follansbee says she doesn’t separate board, describes this reform as want to keep someone in the hospital positive, saying that it offers patients one unnecessarily, she says a cautious more avenue to obtain conditional release. approach is still needed. At the State Hospital, patients afe Oregon law directs the board to have subject to widely Varying degrees of “as its primary concern the protection of supervision, ranging from closely society” When making decisions regarding monitored settings to living semi- the conditional release or discharge of independently in group homes on the p atien ts. A nd to get o u t of the hospital, .j facility’s grounds. In late March, a patient patients still have Lo go through foiir , ; at the State Hospital who had pleaded guilty except for insanity to an'attempted separate layers of approval,; all of-which . g murder charge walked away. Follansbee says are needed. Rebeka Gipson-King, spokesperson for “The data Suggests that slow the Oregon Health Authority, says that incremental moves will give our clients the people are often surprised that some tools, so when they are no longer under S patients live semi-independently at the our board, they can continue their State Hospital. stability,’’.says Follansbee. “It’s clear by “The State Hospital is not a . our recidivism rate that when you’re under punishment,” she says. “They are sent -g our board you’re going to remain stable.” ; there to get better.” ' One thing that everyone agrees on is However, some mental health advocates, have seen things differently. that the PSRB has-been effective in “You have the use of the State Hospital carrying out its public safety mandate. The as a punishment, a very expensive recidivism rate for the PSRB for the last. - punishment,” says Chris Bouneff, the 15 years is 2.66 percent. Of the 1,655 executive director of the National Alliance people who’ve obtained conditional release on Mental Illness Oregon, Bouneff says over the last 15 years, only 17 have that under the PSRB’s previous executive committed new felonies. director, Mary Claire Buckley, clients “When you look at Mary Clare Buckley’s would he sent back to the State Hospital record and lack of recidivism, it s clear that for relatively minor infractions, such as she didn’t take a lot of chances on people,” failing a drug test, which could be addressed in a less costly way. “It certainly says Jason Renaud, spokesperson for the wasn’t helping with the smooth operating Mental Health Association of Portland. of our mental health operation,” he says. t “It seems like what happens when you Patrick, who doesn’t want his real name have a strong personality in charge of an used in this article because he’s still under organization, the process just sort of the jurisdiction of the PSRB, says that his - fades,” says Bob Joondeph, the executive defense lawyer talked him into pleading director of Disability Rights Oregon. guilty except for insanity to what he says Although the PSRB is designed to move was a bogus burglary charge. His lawyer carefully, he says, Follansbee has so far told him he would spend a few months in the State Hospital. Instead he got 10 years “brought a less hierarchical and more of being under the PSRB’s jurisdiction. collaborative approach to making the After spending three years in the State process work the way it’s supposed to.” Hospital, he was released to a group home Joondeph says that movies and TV have in Portland, where he says the threat of long fueled the notion that mentally ill being sent back was used as a threat to ; 1 people are dangerous and need to be keep residents in line. locked up. He says that the PSRB should “The overall structure is, if you bring an focus more on recovery and individuals . issue to your case monitor that could under it should receive treatment in the result in very negative things happening to least segregated settings possible, which • you,” he says. An investigation ipta allegations that he says the board doesn’t have the best Buckley was verbally abusive was dropped track record on. following her resignation this past “It’s a difficult position to be in because summer. She was hired by the Portland public safety is our mandate,” says Police Bureau as a policy analyst in Follansbee. “It’s difficult to have everyone November. in our system happy with the results.” Follansbee wouldn’t speak to criticisms
